Heber Hannington Kerr Greene was born in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the university of Toronto in 1911 and completed his religious education at Toronto's Wycliffe College the following year. Greene became a deacon of the Anglican Church at St. Thomas' Church, St. Catherine's, Ontario in 1912. Shortly afterwards he married Jean Moberley with whom he had two daughters. They came to British Columbia and, in June 1914, Greene was ordained priest at the church of St. John the Evangelist in Old Masset. Reverend Greene served as the spiritual head of a number of British Columbia churches before following in the footsteps of his younger brother, Alan, and joining the Columbia Coast Mission in 1943. Over the course of the next sixteen years, he travelled the northern British Columbia coast, providing spiritual support to the inhabitants of its numerous logging and mining camps, and of its native and non-native settlements. In 1951, Greene became an Honorary Canon of the Diocese of New Westminster and seven years later, in 1958, he retired to Vancouver. Herbert Hannington Kerr Greene was a passionate amateur historian, referred to by some as a local archivist, collecting both historical and contemporary information on a variety of topics, such as: Canadian individuals, history of the province and its native and non-native people, British Columbia place names, Canadian railways history, history of the Anglican church in Canada. He frequently corresponded with other historically-minded individuals, both seeking and sharing information.